Somerset Berkley officials discuss progress on new high school construction

With a new school year set to begin and construction on the new Somerset Berkley Regional High School entering its second year, the project team discussed progress and costs while talking about other issues, such as parking, Tuesday night. A small but interested audience of about 15 people, many of who...

With a new school year set to begin and construction on the new Somerset Berkley Regional High School entering its second year, the project team discussed progress and costs while talking about other issues, such as parking, Tuesday night.

A small but interested audience of about 15 people, many of whom live nearby, attended a half-hour presentation coordinated by Richard Fenstermaker, chairman of the Somerset Berkley School Building Committee.

He was joined in describing construction progress by Michael Morrison of Skanska, the school district’s project manager, as well as Superintendent Thomas Lynch, regional committee Chairman Richard Peirce, high school Principal Jahmal Mosley and Brian Heaney of Ai3, the architectural firm.

On a dozen slides, they highlighted each aspect of the four major buildings totaling 222,850 square feet.

Some progress was so dramatic that it wouldn’t have been hard to picture classes being conducted, while large spaces like the multilevel auditorium and gymnasium showed progress from late spring but clearly needed much more work.

The building committee conducted a limited tour of the building in late June.

The new high school is being built next to the existing one. During the construction that began in the summer of 2012, after nearly two years since planning began for the $82.4 million high school, the tennis courts, a new track and synthetic-turf athletic field have been installed.

The second phase, which will continue through August 2014, will be ongoing building construction as well as creating new baseball and softball fields to prepare the building to host grades nine through 12 in September 2014.

A subsequent third phase through August 2015 will entail abatement and the demolition of the current high school and construction of new soccer fields in that location, officials said.

The budget status shows $29.7 million of the nearly $82.4 million budgeted has been spent.

Of the amount spent, the Massachusetts School Building Authority has reimbursed $17.9 million.

While the total unreimbursed cost to the district is $11.8 million to date, about $3.9 million was submitted in late August for reimbursement, and unspent contingency funds total nearly $3.17 million, Fenstermaker said.

He said the district was on track with initial projections that the 67 percent state reimbursement of eligible costs would result in 60 percent of the project being paid by the state.

When asked about “change orders” — work that deviates from plans and usually adds expense — Fenstermaker said, “It’s been very good … less than 1 percent.”

Looking ahead to the next three months, Morrison said three of four connected buildings should be weather-tight, and the fourth one should be in December.

Rough installation of mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection will be done in the gym, auditorium and cafeteria during the next three months. Also, the outdoor maintenance building and concession stand will be completed, Morrison said.

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Mosley described the parking and busing situation. He emphasized that, when school opens, very little would change from the last school year while construction was underway.

One positive note was that the temporary student parking behind the existing high school has about 40 more parking spaces. “We hope to eliminate the need for student parking along the street,” he said.

During the question-and-answer period, which was also about a half-hour, Colleen Powers of Hathaway Road, which is adjacent to the site, complained about the traffic and parking in the church lot that resulted in problems.

Powers said they found trash and small alcohol bottles in the lot, and one time there was a fight. “And it is a church parking lot,” she added.

Mosley apologized, promised to take a proactive approach and put the word out early that students were not to park there and were to be respectful. He said he’d prefer to give students warnings before ticketing them and encouraged residents to contact him with problems.

Mosley also talked about the three or four Berkley buses arriving a few minutes earlier than Somerset’s, and where their separate parking areas would be.

During upcoming first days of school, Mosley said school staff would direct drop-offs and pickups to help everyone understand the layout.

“It’s a challenge,” he said, “but at the same time very, very exciting.”

While most of the neighbors’ concerns were about parking, including visibility from construction crew vehicles and equipment, another was about drainage by the athletic fields.

There’s been standing water near the storage sheds, one man said. When Morrison said they’d added drainage structures, the man replied, “It’s not working.”

Fenstermaker said this was a newer situation and would be addressed at its weekly meeting held on Fridays.

Just before the meeting broke up, one man that asked several questions said appreciatively: “I just want to say that you guys are doing a great job.”